
WOODROW WESO 





Class. 
Book. 






Gop}T!ghtN"_.. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



"A hopeful little band that determined to serve 
the people instead of special interests." — Woodrow 
Wilson. 



THE FORERUNNERS OF 
WOODROW WILSON 

BY 
HESTER E. HOSFORD 



An account of the men and measures that prepared the 
way and made possible the nomination and election of the 
twenty-eighth President of the United States. Introductory 
and heretofore unpublislied chapters of "Woodrow Wilson and 
New Jersey Made Over," by the same author, publislied by 
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1912. The first edition of Miss Hosford's 
book was a factor in securing the nomination of Mr. Wilson 
at Baltimore; the second edition, with the preface by U. S. 
Senator Gore, of Oklahoma, was the Wilson campaign biog- 
raphy in the three-cornered contest with Taft and Roosevelt. 

To which is added a chapter on "Jersey Justice," by Her- 
man B. Walker, in which he describes work in behalf of the 
special interests which cost one man the Governorship of New 
Jersey and another man the Chief Justiceship of the United 
States. A chapter of intense interest on account of the 
approaching appointment of a new Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court of New Jersey. 



WITH A PREFACE BY ALDEN FREEMAN 



WITH 17 ILLUSTRATIONS 



least (Oraityf Slrrnr^ Jlriitt 
East Orange, N. J. 



u Q - 



"I love these lonely figures, climbing this ugly mountain 
of privilege, but they are not so lonely now. I am sorry, for 
my part, that I did not come in when they were fewer. There 
was no credit to come in when I came in. The whole nation 
had awakened. All of New Jersey, at any rate, was tired of 
the game and was willing to try an unsophisticated school- 
master because it is in search of somebody that did not know 
how to play the old game." 

WOODROW AVILSON. 

Extract from speech at Wilmington, Del., Oct. 18, 1912. 



MAR I3I3;4 



Copyright, 1914, by Hester E. Hosford. 



0)CI,A3r>2 95G 



This brief account of 

the Agitators and Progressives 

who blazed the trail of 

'The New Freedom" 

is dedicated to 

WOODROW WILSON, 

the great constructive statesman, 

who as 

Governor of New Jersey 

first realized the dreams of the insurgents 

and now as 

President of the United States 

is fulfilling their fondest hopes. 



A PROPHECY FULFILLED. 

Preface to "A Year in Politics," by Alden Freeman, 
published in 1906. 

Dear Mr. Freeman: 

Jersey's real fight has just begun. Your machine 
and your corrupt special interests are not thoroughly 
aroused yet, but they will be awakened to a true sense 
of the situation this winter. 

What delights me most is the way you have got hold 
of the issue, the real issue. You represent to my mind 
the best people we have, the uncompromising "kick- 
ers." Some people object to them, but I know what 
good they do. I know that they do good even if they 
appear to kick on issues that are side issues to the men 
on the firing line. 

But you never do that. For you see the bull's eye. 
You see that we have got to use our human tools as 
God makes them and the business of the critic is to 
jolly them along or whale away at them, simply to 
make them go in the right direction. 

Let me make a prediction based upon my reading of 
you and of your writings. New Jersey will be one of 
the first three States to sfet out of the hole. 

I can't be with you on February 5th, but I can shake 
your hand, and I do. God bless you, Alden Freeman, 
for being and seeing so straight! 

please rem.Gmter me to the good fellows that are 
working with you in the Oranges. 
Sincerely yours, 

J. LINCOLN STEFFENS. 

New York, December 26, 1905. 



"The field that I plow is Ignorance and the weeds thereof are 
Error. The plow that I use is Truth.— Thus spake Buddha, Prince 

of India, 2,500 years ago. 

I shall make it mjr task to expose the abuses that are about to 
ruin the country, and that your honesty alone can correct.— Last 

speech of Robespierre, July 26, 1794. 



PREFACE 

EIGHT YEARS AFTER. 

New York State is still in the hole because the re- 
formers and the newspapers there are pussy-footed 
and afraid to name and pillory the real culprits, the 
financial malefactors behind the political bosses. Here 
in New Jersey we called a spade a spade and a crook 
a crook. We did not waste our powder on Lentz and 
Dickinson, on Briggs and Baird, on Strong and Voor- 
hees or other mere county bosses. We concentrated 
our fire upon the "Masters of the Boss," the high 
priests of special privilege and finance, the Drydens 
and Keans and McCarters. 

By study of directorates and careful process of 
elimination we "trailed the serpent" to his lair in 
Newark in the Prudential Insurance Company, the 
Public Service Corporation, the Pennsylvania Railroad 



6 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

and the Federal Trust Company, where we discovered 
the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey 
sitting with the Democratic State Boss and the Treas- 
urer of the Republican State Committee, and we dis- 
closed the connection between this cabal and the 
United Gas ring in Philadelphia and the Equitable 
Insurance officials then being investigated by Charles 
E. Hughes, 

U. S. Senators Dryden and Kean, James Smith, Jr., 
and the McCarters between them controlled the two 
political machines, and it made small difference to them 
whether a Republican or a Democrat was elected to 
office, as they were always the veiled power behind 
the throne. Taking our cue from these men the pro- 
gressive revolters of 1905 no sooner secured the Re- 
publican nomination of Everett Colby for State Sen- 
ator for Essex County than we made equal effort to 
nominate Julian A. Gregory as his opponent on the 
Democratic ticket. We checkmated the special inter- 
ests by their own method. 

When New York gets its eyes open sufficiently wide 
to perceive that Murphy and Barnes are merely 
"whipping boys" for Thomas Fortune Ryan and the 
"corrupt contractors" whose names never by any 



WOODROW WILSON 7 

chance get into a New York paper, then perhaps New 
York State will also get out of the hole. If New York 
ever screws up her courage to call a crook a crook 
and to name the masters of Barnes and Murphy, about 
that time I predict her Legislature will pass a genuine 
Direct Primary Law. 

Some of the New England States might get out of 
the hole if the people of those States could muster 
courage to demand a true accounting of their steward- 
ship from the directors, of the New Haven railway 
system instead of patting them on the back for retiring 
from the board after they have squeezed the lemon dry. 

ALDEN FREEMAN. 
East Orange, January 5, 1914. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Dedication to Woodrow Wilson 3 

A Prophecy Fulfilled Lincoln Steffens 4 

Preface Alden Freeman 5 

Chapter 1 13 

The Fight for Direct Primaries by George 
Record. Mayor Fagan's Fight for Equal Taxa- 
tion. The Fight in the Oranges for Limited 
Franchises. The Birth of the New Idea Move- 
ment. 

Chapter II 25 

Everett Colby Throws Down the Gauntlet to 
the Corporations. Alden Freeman Exposes Cor- 
poration Rule and Its Methods. The People's 
Lobby. Desperate Drydenites Offer Colby the 
Governorship. 

Chapter III 35 

Senator La Follette Compasses the Defeat of 
Senator Dryden. Summary of the Results of 
the New Idea Campaigns. Direct Primaries. 
Limited Francises. Equal Taxation. Civil 
Service Commission. Anti-Mosquito Crusade. 
The Weird Campaign of 1908. The State 
League for Direct Primaries. Governor Wil- 
son Carries Out the New Idea Program. 

Chapter IV 49 

The Killing of tlie Nine High School Pupils 
in Newark on February 19, 1903. Corporation 
Control of New Jersey Courts Described by Her- 
man B. Walker. 



CONTENTS 9 

Chapter V 56 

What Happened in the Grand Jury Room 
When A. J. Cassatt and Other Directors of the 
Trolley Company Were Indicted for Manslaugh- 
ter. The Revelations of a Juryman. 

Chapter VI 6 2 

The Exposures Made by Alden Freeman in 
1907 Cost Judge Gummere the Chief Justice- 
ship of the United States in 1910, as Well as 
Chandler W. Riker the Governorship of New 
Jersey in 1908. 

Chapter VII 64 

Essex County Grand Jury of 1907 Defies 
Chief Justice Gummere and Indicts the Trolley 
Company. The Roll of Honor. 

Chapter VIII 67 

History Repeats Itself. The Rebuke to the 
Last Royal Chief Justice of New Jersey by the 
Patriotic Grand Jurymen of 17 74 Duplicated in 
1907 in the Rebuke to a Republican Chief Jus- 
tice for His Support of Corporation Tyranny. 

Chapter IX 71 

Speech of Joseph P. Tumulty in the New Jer- 
sey Assembly in Which He Attacks Attorney- 
General Robert H. McCarter for Using His Office 
to Protect the Corporations. 

Chapter X 76 

A Brief Account of the Work of Julian A. 
Gregory, Mayor of East Orange, Who Was the 
Pioneer in the Fight Against the Democratic 
State Boss, ex-U. S. Senator James Smith, Jr., 
and Fought Him Single-handed for Years Until 
Governor Wilson Finally Destroyed His Control 
Over the Democratic Party in the State and Re- 
tired Him and His Nephew, James R. Nugent, 
to the City of Newark, Where They Still Rule 
in the Manner of Tammanv Hall. 



10 



1 [.LUSTRATIONS. 

Page. 

George L. Record Frontispiece 12 

Mark M. Fagan 15 

Everett Colby IS 

Alden Freeman 21 

Specimens of the Genuine and tlie Forged Postal Cards by 
the Use of Which a Perpetual Franchise Was Secured 
for the Central Avenue Trolley in East Orange. . : . . . 2 2 

William P. Martin 24 

Frederick W. Kelsey 26 

Adolph Roeder 28 

William Jennings Bryan 3 3 

Robert Marion La Follette 36 

James E. Martine 3 9 

Frank H. Sommor 4 6 

Herman B. Walker 50 

William Fellowes Morgan 65 

Painting by Frank 1). :\lillet. showing Uzal Ward's Defiance, 
in 1774, of the last royal Chief Justice of New Jersey, 
from the original in the Grand Jury Room in the 
Court House in Newark 67 

Joseph P. Tumulty 73 

Julian A. Gregory 77 



11 



"New Jersey has been supposed to be one of the back- 
ward States of the Union until recently, when she got a move 
on. But it is a good many years now since that interesting 
figure of young Senator Colby, of Essex County, arose in the 
city of Newark and started a movement among the Repub- 
licans known as the 'new idea' movement. I have never had 
that name explained to me, and I have simply assumed that 
it meant that the idea of the Republican party understanding 
and serving the people was a new idea. For that was Senator 
Colby's idea. He was tired of seeing New Jersey and the 
Republicans in New Jersey serve a narrow group of special 
interests, and he led a hopeful little band that determined to 
serve the people instead of special interests." — Woodrow Wil- 
son, in speech at Wilmington, Del., October 18, 1912. 



12 



THE FORERUNNERS OF 




GEORGE L. RECORD 

Member of the State Board of Assessors 



Whenever our committee went before a commission or 
sought a hearing at Trenton, among the few workers in this 
field we could always depend upon the leadership of one power- 
ful advocate of popular rights. First and foremost in the cause 
we always found a brave and brainy mam from Hudson County. 
I mean George L. Record, with his splendid equipment 
of intelect, learning, untiring energy and insight into human 
nature, a profound student of politics and a natural leader of 
men. — "A Year in Politics," 1906. 



WOODROW WILSON 13 



CHAPTER I. 

NEW JERSEY'S PRELIMINARY STRUGGLE FOR 
SELF GOVERNMENT. 

Probably the most interesting fight for reform in 
New Jersey before the present era, began about twenty 
years ago when George L. Record, a tall New Eng- 
land Yankee, who had migrated from Maine to Jersey 
City, proposed to reach the cancerous growth of boss 
rule and machine domination by aiming at these para- 
sites of the republic the artillery of a direct primary 
measure. This was the first state-wide primary bill 
drafted in the United States, and in every essential 
point was identical with the Geran Act of 1911. While 
Mr. Record was unable on account of machine opposi- 
tion to push this measure through the legislative mill, 
he induced Governor George T. Werts to recommend 
it in his first annual message to the legislature, Jan- 
uary 1, 1893. The press reports of his inaugural 
created notice throughout the country of this novel 
scheme, and many inquiries came from the West for 
copies of the bill. 



14 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

It bore fruit in several states where it furnished a 
model for primary statutes, notably in Oregon, Minne- 
sota and Wisconsin. 

It was ten years after Mr. Record's direct primary 
bill was introduced in New Jersey before he was able 
to secure its passage. In 1903 Governor Franklin 
Murphy, a notorious stand-patter, signed it. 

This was not the efficient legislation which its orig- 
inator desired, but it was the best which could be 
procured at that time, and it was the first step leading 
up to our present state-wide primary law. Its enact- 
ment made it possible to fight machines, and to meet 
their heretofore undaunted experts on their own 
ground. It denied them the privileges which they had 
so long exercised of declaring who might vote, and 
later on of counting the ballots. 

This last provision was aimed at communities where 
astounding ballot box frauds had been committed by 
the machine, particularly in Hudson county, where a 
few years before thirty men were sent to state's pris- 
on through the instrumentality of General E. Burd 
Grubb for participating in one of the worst crimes in 
New Jersey's history. 

But direct primary agitation was the torch which 
kindled the reform flame. Then, there was the hob- 



WOODROW WILSON 



35 




MARK >I. FAGAN 

Mayor of Jersey City 



A servant of God and the people. A giver of kindness, 
sympathy, love. He has carried "the greatest of these" out 
into the streets, through the railroad yards, up to the doors 
of the houses and factories, where he has knocked, offering 
only service, honest and true, even in public office. "Life Is 
one long fight for right," says this very gentle man.^Llncoln 
Steffens in McClure's Magazine, January, 1P06. 



16 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

goblin of unlimited franchises, granted in perpetuity, 
or for long periods of time, conferring irrevocable priv- 
ileges upon utilities v^hich v^ere increasing rapidly in 
value with a yearly compounding increment of profit 
to the corporations, and little or no direct benefit to the 
municipalities. 

Fuel was added to the controversy by the startling 
discovery that the railroads were entitled to a special 
tax rate by law and that they were only paying $5.00 
per thousand on the main stem values, while private 
property owners averaged to pay $22.00 a thousand. 

This was "the most unkindest cut of all," and war 
opened when Mark M. Fagan, Republican Mayor of 
Jersey City, and an honest man, with the courage of a 
Daniel and the grit of a bull dog, addressed to Gov- 
ernor Franklin Murphy, a famous letter of protest 
against the corporation control of the Republican party 
and the Republican legislature, in which Fagan openly 
charged that the legislature and the Republican state 
leaders were acting in the interest of the railroads, and 
were causing legislation in the Republican interest to be 
smothered. The outcome of this was an anti-machine 
organization headed by Mayor Fagan and George L. 
Record, in Jersey City. 



WOODROW WILSON 17 

Furthermore, these two men who were looked upon 
by the corporations as troublesome meddlers, did some 
hobnobbing with the aristocrats of the Oranges, who 
had been stirring things up a bit during their leisure 
hours, through the Citizens' Union, and New England 
Society. These organizations had fired a few opening 
guns; the bosses had smelt powder, but they believed 
that the odor only indicated firecrackers. Thsir dreams 
had been occasionally disturbed, but then, they did 
not mind the presence of a little phosphorus in the air; 
it saved politics from becoming too tame a game. 

At this time there was an assemblyman from Essex, 
whom the corporations had been regarding with cur- 
iosity because he had audaciously offered a resolution 
that the assembly should go on record as opposing 
further grants of perpetual franchises for corpora- 
tion use of public streets. 

This bold and presuming gentleman, Everett Colby, 
was laughed at for such nonsense, and his resolution 
ignominiously lost. Colby was a patrician who had 
inherited a fortune from his family, which had been 
wealthy for generations. In the assembly he had been 
classified as a regular, but as the scales had fallen from 
his eyes, he had been growing less regular, and still 



18 



THE FORERUNNERS OF 




EVERETT COLBY 

"You are the pioneer progressive of New Jersey. 

"I cannot refrain from referring to your great fight of 
eight years ago, which first drew national attention to New 
Jersey as a progressive State, and the consistent, tireless fight 
Which you have waged, in season and out of season, to keep 
her so. 

"Every corrupt boss, every big corrupt financial magnate, 
and, above all, those who seek to perpetuate the rule of busi- 
ness through a combination of what is crooked in business and 
crooked in politics, recognize in you and the New Jersey pro- 
gressives, their Worst enemies. 

"You are fighting the battle not only of all progressives, 
but of the honest rank and file of both the old parties in your 
warfare against the machines of both the old parties." — Tlieo- 
dore Roosevelt, October 3, 1913. 



WOODRUW WILSON 19 

less regular, until he could see beyond the system into 
the realm of individual rights. A few of his constit- 
uents who were lined up as foes of privilege started a 
free for all fight, and began to stack the cards for 
Colby's senatorial nomination, which they secured 
through Record's primary law. Then the bosses who 
had been having bad dreams had nightmare. Perhaps 
the poet was right when he said, "We are such stuff as 
dreams are made of," but surely the men who waged 
the 1905 anti-boss war in New Jersey were made of 
sterner stuff. 

A glance at a few of their names will recall some in- 
teresting moving pictures ; there was Alden Freeman, a 
true nobleman by birth, skilled as a political acrobat, 
mascot of free speech, and the distinguished friend of 
the oppressed. 

Mr. Freeman had been twice honored by Custodian 
Weseman of the state capitol, who had threatened to 
eject him from the state house, because of Mr. Free- 
man's lobbying for limited franchises. Freeman had 
plenty of time on his hands, part of which he had used 
to make life interesting for Chief Justice William S. 
Gummere, and Chandler Riker, the Essex public pros- 
ecutor, who had refused to grant individual indictments 
against the North Jersey Street Railroad Company, fol- 



20 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

lowing the disastrous grade-crossing trolley accident 
of 1903, in which nine high school students were in- 
stantly killed. Freeman was a member of the grand 
jury at this time and fearlessly exposed the corruption 
incident to this case. 

The public service men could not forgive him for un- 
earthing an infamous piece of skull-duggery perpe- 
trated by the corporations in the interest of a franchise 
on Central Avenue in East Orange. 

A councilman in that city, William B. Harris by 
name, was anxious to test the sentiment of his con- 
stituents as to the advisability of granting to the 
public service corporations the privilege of operating 
trolley cars in perpetuity on the Central line; accord- 
ingly he sent to the voters of his ward postal cards 
asking them to indicate how they would prefer to 
have the matter decided. Returns showed an over- 
whelming majority in favor of the franchise; but, upon 
investigation Mr. Freeman proved that three hundred 
forged postals, each marked for perpetual franchise 
had been mailed to the councilman. Mr. Freeman spent 
a great deal of time in discovering the evidence neces- 
sary to prove that the councilman had been duped by 
the corporations. He made a careful comparison of 



WOODROW WILSON 



21 




ALDEN FREEMAN 



Organizer, 1902, and secretary, 1902-08, Citizens' Union 
of East Orange, a forerunner of later reform movements in 
New Jersey; proprietor, 1903-04, Newark Truth, weekly organ 
of reform politics, edited by James Martin, managing editor 
N. Y. Tribune; opened his home, June 8, 1909, for a lecture 
by Emma Goldman when police prevented her speaking in New 
York, New Jersey and Connecticut — Who's Who in America, 
1912. 

Alden Freeman, the plucky pioneer of free speech in a 
"free country." — Prince Peter Kropotkin, London, Eng., Sept. 
12, 1910. 



22 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

the original postal cards with the forged ones ; the 
latter differed from the former in the formation of 
the letter "R" in the word, "PERPETUAL," as illus- 
trated by the following: 



Vote 




AGAINST 

PERPETUAL FRANCHISE 

ON CENTRAL AVENUE. 

Cross out either the word FOR or AGAINST. 



THE GENUINE POSTAL CARD. 



J FOR I ^ 
^^^^ i AGAlMOT f ^ 



PERPETUAL FRANCHISE 

ON CENTRAL AVENUE. 



Cross out either the word FOR or AGAINST. 



THE FORGED POSTAL CARD. 



W(30DR0W WILSON 23 

There were other bluebloods who enjoyed enlighten- 
ing the public. For instance, Frederick W. Kelsey, a 
modern philosopher of the Marcus Aurelius school; 
Henry H. Hall, an insurance man whose life was an 
open book, a rare exception in those days; William P. 
Martin, a staunch progressive, who made others prog- 
ress ; John H. Gibson, a natural born press agent ; Lath- 
rop Anderson, a pious peacemaker ; and Frank H. Som- 
mer, whose intellect and resourcefulness ought to make 
him one of the Seven Wonders of the World. 

Such shining stars were Colby's backers. The prin- 
ciples for which he and his supporters stood were con- 
temptuously referred to by ex-Governor John W. 
Griggs, as the "New Idea," and will be considered in 
the following chapter. 



24 



THE FORERUNxNERS OF 




WILLIAM P. MARTIN 

Judge of the Court of Coiiinion Pleas 

The chairman of the Colby campaign in 1905 won his 
spurs as the people's champion in his successful efforts to save 
Military Park and the City Hall in Newark from threatened 
trolley loops. Throughout the campaign he proved himself 
to be possessed of executive ability of a high order. I look to 
see him make a still greater reputation for courage and inde- 
pendence on the floor of the State Assembly. He is sturdy and 
fearless in behalf of what he believes to be right. — "A Year 
in Politics," 1906. 



WOODRUW WILSON 25 



CHAPTER II. 

"It is well known that the corporations have a grip 
on legislation which is perfectly inexcusable, and that 
this tendency is dangerous to a degree there can be no 
doubt, tending as it does, to undermine popular gov- 
ernment, and the danger lies in this: not that the cor- 
porations always demand what they know to be wrong, 
but because they do not know what is right. Their 
judgment is warped by personal prejudice, as one's 
judgment is always warped on a question which strikes 
home against his personal interest." — Extract from 
speech made by Everett Colby, March 1, 1905, at Citi- 
zens' Union dinner. East Orange, preceding his sena- 
torial nomination. 

The steamroller of the "New Idea" was now in 
good running order. Colby waved a red flag at the cor- 
porations, and launched a reform movement destined 
to become national in its influence. The battle was 
begun. No sooner had Mr. Colby protested against the 
grip of the corporations than he was bidden by his foes 
to "Beware the Ides of March." Major Carl Lentz, 



26 



THE FORERUNNERS OF 




FREDERICK W KELSEY 

"Father of tlie Essex County Parks" 

Chairman of committee which framed New Jersey Shade 
Tree Commission Law, 1893, the first in the United States, 
since copied in other States; chairman of the committee which 
framed the New Jersey Limited Franchise Law of 1905, and 
chairman of the committee of the New England Society of 
Orange which prepared the amendments to the Corporation 
Laws of New Jersey, 1906. 

The originator of the first county park system in the 
United States is still actively in the field against special priv- 
ilege and working side by side with Gifford Pinchot for 
conservation of the National resources. 



WOODRUW WILSON 27 

then the Republican boss of Essex, and a party disci- 
plinarian of the first rank, with an iron jaw and a mili- 
tary record, informed Assemblyman Colby that he v/as 
to relurn to the quiet atmosphere of home life. 

But the reformers protested, and after ths victory in 
the primaries worked tooth and nail for Colby's elec- 
tion. The prospect of being represented by a man who 
would not act as a "cat's paw" for the corpcraticns, and 
who would refuse to take orders from the bosses, tcok 
hold of the voters. But ths men who really scaled the 
"walls of Jericho," were those, who, for several years, 
had been av/akening public sentiment through the 
dynamic force of civic organizations, probably the most 
practical method of germinating and developing gen- 
uine civic zeal. 

There were three influential non-partisan societies 
which contributed the breath of life to the Colby cam- 
paign. Lightning-bugs had been buzzing in the air 
ever since the Citizens' Union, in 1902, started things 
by revolting against perpetual and long-time-fran- 
chises. The New England Society, though conserva- 
tive, woke up, in 1905, under the leadership of Fred- 
erick W. Kelsey, and demanded legislation in the in- 
terest of franchise reform. The New Jersey State 
Civic Federation had been eternally alert, and many of 



28 



THE FORERUNNERS OF 




REV. ADOLPH ROEDEK 
President of the New Jersey State Civic Federation. 



"The Pioneer in the Religion of Statecraft and the Philos- 
ophy of Civics." 

That divinely gifted man, the almost inspired seer and 
philosopher. When this exalted character, so just, so unimpas- 
sicned, always so serene and wise, has passed from us, we shall 
understand that a man like unto Emerson has dwelt among 
us and at last realize what opportunities of enlightenment we 
have neglected in not sitting at the feet of this great teacher 
to learn wisdom. — "A Year in Politics," 1906. 



WOODROW WILSON 29 

our worthwhile reforms originated in the fertile brain 
of Rev. Adolph Roeder, a philosopher, author and lec- 
turer of distinguished reputation, who was for a long 
time president of the Federation. 

Alden Freeman, regarded by the corporations as an 
unquenchable sky-rocket, hailed Everett Colby in The 
New York Evening Mail, March 5, 1905, *'as a leader 
found at last around whom the people of New Jersey 
may rally, in the great struggle, which shall eventually 
strangle cunning, strongly entrenched though it be in 
corporation-ridden New Jersey." 

Nothing is stronger than public opinion, and with a 
gale of reform blowing at a terrific speed, the "New 
Idea" spread over the state, and the corporations 
squirmed spasmodically when Colby was sent to the 
senate by 20,000 majority on a platform demanding 
prohibition of the granting of perpetual franchises ; the 
reduction of taxes by taxing the franchises of public- 
service corporations at their true value, and at local 
rates ; and by taxing railroads on their main trunk, or 
stem, at the same rate which other taxpayers paid; 
the passage of a law to provide for each voter the 
privilege of expressing on his ballot his preference for 
United States senator; the extension of the primary 



30 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

law to provide for the abolition of conventions, and the 
nomination of candidates by direct vote. 

Now that Colby was elected, the special interests 
looked upon him as a champion heavj^weight trouble 
maker. Only a few weeks before he took his senatorial 
seat Colby fired another cannon in an address before 
the Society of Colonial Wars at Lakewood, where he 
scored the lobbyists responsible for the bribery used 
to secure the passage of the Morris Canal Bill. In 
referring to these gentlemen, he said: "They are 
stamped as crooks, known as crooks, act like crooks, 
look like crooks, and are crooks." 

Naturally these crooks inquired, "What manner of 
man is this" who is capable of such brazen utterances? 
They hoped, however, to dispose of Colby when he 
entered the senate by attaching to him a placard read- 
ing, "Look to him, he is dangerous." If this did not 
work, violence might be necessary. 

The state was so completely honeycombed by cor- 
poration inflence that Colby hardly knew where to be- 
gin, and although there were twenty "new idea" men 
over in the Assembly, the Essex senator was obliged to 
depend on his old public-spirited friends to help him 
play the game. 



WOODROW WILSON 31 

It was time for Alden Freeman to turn another 
political somersault. This time he skated a figure eight 
on a double trapeze, and caused another upheaval of 
public opinion, by a clever book, called "A Year in 
Politics," followed by a radical pamphlet, entitled "Cor- 
poration Rule in New Jersey." In these volumes Mr, 
Freeman showed that the corporations had fortified 
themselves by placing on their Boards of Directors the 
Judges of Courts, the Commissioners of Taxation and 
Assessment, county and municipal officials, and partic- 
ularly the treasurers of the state committees of the two 
chief political parties. Mr. Freeman proved beyond a 
doubt that corporation control was supreme in every 
city hall, in every court house, and even in the state 
house ; that the chief agents of the corporations, known 
as county bosses, selected the Governors of New Jersey, 
who, in turn, named the bosses to the chief offices in the 
gift of the governor; and that this control was main- 
tained by the payment of campaign expenses. 

Mr. Freeman said: "I have myself heard a United 
States senator say that he made sure of his re-election 
by paying the election expenses of the legislators who 
voted for him." This publication served a better pur- 
pose than merely to cause a sensation, for it awakened 



32 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

the people still further to the imminent danger of 
their loss of power. 

Another institution which stimulated reform, and 
worried Governor Edward C. Stokes, as it did the 
whole stand-pat crowd, was the Peoples' Lobby of New 
Jersey, organized to check undue corporate influence 
where it threatened to injure the interests of the peo- 
ple. Those who had been acting in the "new idea" 
campaign ' induced such men as Hamilton W. Mabie, 
(editor of "The Outlook"), James E. Martine (since 
U. S. senator), Adolph Roeder, Herman Walker, Simon 
Northrup, Winthrop More Daniels, Edwin G. Adams, 
Dan Fellowes Piatt, Harry V. Osborne (later State 
Senator), Samuel Merwin, Edmond Whittier, and 
others to join this organization, which sent its repre- 
sentatives to visit the legislature in the interest of 
popular legislation ; published a record of state officials 
and made an appeal to their constituents for sugges- 
tions in regard to reform. 

Colby was making a successful fight and the people 
were becoming Argus-eyed ; it was a period of intense 
interest when United States Senator John F. Dryden's 
term expired in 1907. He was president of the Pru- 
dential Life Insurance Company, which controlled joint- 



WOODRUW WILSON 



33 




® 1913, by American Press Association. 

WILLIAM JENNINGS BRIAN 

Secretaiy of State of the United States 
The Apostle of World Peace 

On May 1, 1907, Mr. Bryan delivered his great speech on 
the Initiative and Referendum, entitled "Let the People Rule," 
before the People's Lobby of New Jersey at the largest dinner 
ever gotten up in Newark. Here were gathered practically all 
the progressives mentioned in these chapters. Among the 
speakers were that silver-tongued orator, Assemblyman Joseph 
P. Tumulty, now Secretary to President Wilson; Congressman 
William Hughes and James E. Martine, both of them now 
United States Senators from New Jersey'; Adoiph Roeder and 
George Record, Herman Walker and Frank Sommer, Mark 
Fagan and Everett Colby. 



34- THE FORERUNNERS OF 

ly with the United Gas Improvement Company of Phil- 
adelphia, the Public Service Corporation of New Jer- 
sey; the latter concern controlled the trolley, gas and 
electric companies in the state, excepting, it is said, 
those owned by ex-United States Senator John Kean 
and his brother. 

Colby had declared that he would not vote for Dry- 
den or any other man who would buy his election as 
evidence indicated that Dryden had done. This an- 
nouncement did not fall in dulcet tones upon the ears 
of the Drydenites. Accordingly they hastened to send 
an emissary to sound the said Colby on his sound- 
ness. An offer of the nomination for the governor of 
New Jersey was made Colby if he would make one 
speech under the auspices of the machine. Of course, 
he never made the speech. 



WOODROW WILSON 35 



CHAPTER III. 

In the primaries of 1906, the regular Republicans 
who were anxious to return Dryden to the senate, and 
the Democratic machine combined to thwart the ''new 
idea" movement; thus illustrating the "Fly-to-each- 
other" principle, when any reform is under way. Ma- 
chine men were nominated, but the voters revolted. 
Essex County, which had not gone Democratic before 
in fifteen years, and where Senator Colby had been 
elected in 1905 by over 20,000 majority, elected eleven 
unknown Democrats to the Assembly, with the pur- 
pose of sending a delegation to the legislature which 
would prevent Dryden's re-election. 

During the campaign it had occurred to Senator Rob- 
ert La Follette, of Wisconsin, that he might be able 
to render the people of New Jersey patriotic service 
and, incidentally, avenge the effrontery of his old foe, 
Dryden, who with a number of the "old guard" in the 
senate had openly insulted the Wisconsin senator by 
leaving the United States Senate chamber just as this 
fiery warhorse of reform had taken the floor to deliver 



36 



THE FORERUNNERS OF 




© by American Press Association. 

HOBEKT MARION LA FOLLETTE 

United States Senator from Wisconsin 

The Pioneer Insurgent of the United States Senate, he 
was the Pioneer Progressive of the Republican party, just as 
Mr. Bryan was the Pioneer Progressive of the Democratic 
party. 



WOODROW WILSON 37 

a speech on the government railroad bill. La Follette 
on this occasion turned to the audience and, with the 
voice of a prophet said: "In a few years the senate 
seats, now made voluntarily vacant, will be involuntar- 
ily vacated by those members who have violated their 
pledges to the people, and these men who now openly 
refuse to listen to me will be deprived of office by their 
constituents in the misrepresented states." 

The champion insurgent of Wisconsin whose atten- 
tion had been attracted to the fearlessness of the 
"new-idea" men in New Jersey came over into the land 
of the Israelites, and "He had in his hand a little book 
open" from which he read before large mass meetings 
the senate roll call and the vote on the federal railroad 
bill. Dryden had voted with the corporations every 
time, and the exposure of his selfish activities had 
aroused public indignation to white heat. The assist- 
ance of La Follette on this occasion was "A very pres- 
ent help in a time of trouble," and will not be for- 
gotten by the reformers of our fair state. 

Remarkable stories had been told of the crooked 
transactions engaged in to secure Dryden's victory in 
1902, when he had defeated Edward C. Stokes by one 
vote; although Mr. Dryden was a self-made man, who 



38 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

by sheer force of character and industry, had emerged 
from poverty and became a president of a large cor- 
poration, yet the insurance scandals in New York 
state had made Mr. Dryden very unpopular so that a 
few regular Republicans, as well as the irregulars, 
voted against him. The legislature was deadlocked for 
weeks. Finally there was a compromise. The Dryden 
forces were allowed to pick their man. The corpora- 
tions always have a long waiting list. This time they 
chose Dryden's residuary legatee, Frank 0. Briggs, the 
state treasurer. His election was a triumph for the 
bosses but a negative victory for the "new ideaites." 
Mr. Briggs was practically unknown to the people of 
New Jersey, and on account of the reputation which he 
had acquired a few years before as a clever subpoena 
dodger during the Mazet Committee investigation in 
New York City, the people of New Jersey did not con- 
gratulate themselves when they learned that they were 
to be represented by Mr. Briggs in the national senate. 
Thus does the fickleness of fortune often play into the 
hands of by-standers who are only watching the wheels 
turn round. The compensation of the public in such 
instances is the reactionary influence, and it will be 
remembered that it was the 1907 legislature which 



WOODROW WILSON 



39 




JAMES E. MARTINE 
United States Senator from New Jersey 

The Farmer Orator of Jersey is keeping up in Washington 
his life-long record of voting always on the side of the people. 



40 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

passed a resolution favoring the election of United 
States senators by popular vote. This resulted later 
in the enactment of a law, the forerunner of our pres- 
ent one. Thus was the seed sown which culminated in 
the people's victory of 1911 when James E. Martine 
won the senatorship after receiving the largest number 
of votes in the senatorial primary. 

To sum up the results of Colby's leadership and the 
"new idea" program we must note the improvement in 
the primary law which was amended so as to allow 
the nomination by direct vote of all candidates for 
office except governor, and congressmen and presi- 
dential electors ; county and state committees were still 
appointed in a corner by the machine. 

A direct primary law, that was not so very direct, 
you will say, and yet, our present Geran law could 
never have been passed without this foundation. To 
show that the new idea was still spreading its roots, 
a railroad law, championed by Colby, had been enacted 
which made the railroads pay the average state rate, 
thus increasing the railroad tax more than $2,000,000 
a year. A part of this fund was later appropriated for 
school purposes, and has since made possible the im- 
provement of the state's educational system. 



WOODROW WILSON 41 

To carry the good work further a franchise law was 
passed limiting the issuance of these privileges to 
twenty years, with an extension of another twenty 
years provided the renewal of the franchise was sanc- 
tioned by popular vote. But the reformers did not 
stop here, they formed through the legislature a law for 
the taxation of public utility franchises which yield the 
state an annual revenue of more than $600,000. In the 
case of street car lines there was a graduate tax scale 
which provided for an increase of taxation as the fran- 
chises increased in value and earning power. While 
these taxation measures made it possible to collect 
from the railroads and public utility companies a much 
larger sum than ever before, still this legislation did not 
measure up to the constitutional requirement of equal 
taxation, but the beginning thus made took us to the 
first mile post of equal taxation. And this was the 
first step toward a proper revaluation of the property 
of corporations, and to a degree, helped to prevent 
over-capitalization, 

A state civil service commission was created with the 
extension of civil service in our municipalities, provis- 
ion was made for a state railroad commission with 
some powers, and the appointment of two commission- 
ers not owned by the railroads. 



-t2 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

Thus New Jersey had pulled up a few of the roots 
of the great tree of special hiterests, but its foliage was 
still bountiful enough to shade the system under its 
huge branches. 

Not only had New Jersey been for generations cor- 
poration ridden, but ever since the memory of man our 
great state had been no less mosquito ridden. There is 
every reason based upon the best authority to prove 
that Pandora opened her famous box in the virgin soil 
of New Jersey, and that this discontented little miss, 
assisted by the fates, assigned mosquitoes and corpor- 
ations to New Jersey for her share of worldly troubles. 
Of course, we shall forgive Pandora on account of her 
immaturity at that time for discriminating against us 
so harshly. But what shall we say of the cruel Fates 
whose years of understanding must have endowed 
them with a fair sense of proportion? 

For centuries New Jersey endured this injustice re- 
signedly, the Presbyterian influence being strongly 
disseminated in every section of the state. Finally the 
new idea men mustered up courage and showed enough 
resentment toward the predestined mosquito to in- 
duce the state legislature to make provision in 1906 
for an annual appropriation for the extermination of 



WOODRUW WILSON 43 

mosquitoes, the aggregate not to exceed $350,000. Of 
this sum ten thousand dollars was appropriated in 1907. 
and the same amount in 1908. Fifteen thousand dol- 
lars has been appropriated since, and we trust that 
future legislatures will not be unmindful of the worthy 
example of the new ideaites, whose newest idea was an 
anti-mosquito crusade, which will engsnder public grat- 
itude, long after the other glorious achievements of 
this progressive period have been forgotten. 

During the three years fight led by Colby, it should 
be remembered that the "new idea" forces never had 
control of either branch of the legislature, but the 
reform measures which we have mentioned were se- 
cured by the minority v/hich kept the majority on its 
mettle by forcing them into corners and cracking the 
whip of public opinion in their ears. 

When it came time for the campaign of 3908. a com- 
plicated situated existed. The use of money by the 
machines contributed by the corporations and the 
breweries in opposition to "new idea" men figured 
largely in defeating them, as did also the fact that 
Colby had voted for a law to make possible closing of 
saloons on Sunday ; the liquor interests and foreign 
born citizens repudiated Colby for this action, while 



44 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

the clergymen and church people voted against the 
"new idea" assembly candidates because they had voted 
against Sunday closing and for open beer gardens. 

It would require the skill of a dramatist to picture 
truly the unique features of this campaign. There 
were ministers of the gospel, saloon kespers, gamblers, 
ward-heelers, machine bosses and railroad bosses rush- 
ing hither and thither, and often working in concert to 
defeat Colby in Essex for Senator, and Mayor Fagan 
for Mayor of Jersey City. Fagan had already served 
three terms. Both went down to defeat. Colby lost 
by seven hundred, while President Taft carried the 
county by twenty-three thousand. This was the first 
time in fifteen years that a democratic senator had 
been elected. Fortunately for the people, Colby's suc- 
cessor, Harry V. Osborne, proved to be an ardent pro- 
gressive, who went ahead with many constructive re- 
forms, and later edited the public utilities law passed 
in Governor's Wilson's administration. This was an- 
other example of the irony of fate. 

Colby, a man of wealth, leisure and learning, who had 
accepted public office at great sacrifice to himself, now 
retired to private life. 

It was announced by the regular leaders the day 
after the 1908 election that the "new idea" was dead 



WOODROW WILSON 45 

and direct primaries a failure. A few days later this 
boast was answered by the organization of the State 
League for Direct Primaries, with Congressman Wil- 
liam Hughes, a Democrat, as president (Mr. Hughes is 
now United States Senator elect); ex-Senator Colby and 
Harry V. Osborne, the Democrat who had just de- 
feated him for state senator, were vice-presidents. The 
membership of the League included most of the men 
of both parties in the state who had been getting a 
reputation for doing things without asking permission 
of the railroads and the corporations. Although the 
new idea candidates were ostensibly defeated, their 
work was only beginning. 

Mr. Fagan, while Mayor of Jersey City, had said that 
he believed the new idea movement would make an 
epoch in the history of the world, and that in years to 
come men would look back to the days of 1905 and 
1906, the rise of national reform in segregated spots, 
and following its course they would discover that what 
seemed like scattered snowdrifts had become an aval- 
anche destined to sweep every thing before it, not only 
redeeming the people from the greed and graft of cor- 
porations, but also raising up a peculiar people, re- 
leased from the giant grip of boss rule, at once re- 
deemed, regenerated, and disenthralled. 



46 



THE FORERUNNERS OF 




FRAXK H. .S()M>IEH 
Pi'ofessor of Law, New York rniversity 

State Railroad Commissioner of Xew Jersey, l!)<)8-tO 

President of the State Hoard of Public Utility Commissioners, 

1{)1<)-11, and since and now Chief Counsel of the Board. 

A man with heart warm enough to feel, with sympathies 
broad enough to understand, with a mind keen enough to 
analyze and dissect and to destroy that which should be 
destroyed, yet with a mind strong enough to build if a struc- 
ture should be reared, and all seasoned with enough mustard 
to make him fight. Such a man is Frank H. Sommer, Sheriff 
of Essex County. — Speech of Everett Colby. 

There was the incisive brain, intellectual grasp and un- 
wavering character of Frank H. Sommer, whose personality 
will, I believe, prove to be the compelling force in many a 
council of State in New Jersey in the days to come. Mr. Som- 
mer's years of tireless labor in behalf of the people's rights 
in their own highways will presently bear fruit. — "A Year in 
Politics," 1906. 



WOODROW WILSON 47 

Mr. Fagan's prophecy is being fulfilled. Although 
the administration of Governor John Franklin Fort, 
from 1908 to 1911 is admitted to have been a failure 
so far as the passage of any progressive legislation was 
concerned, yet we find that during his term the pro- 
gressives of both parties kept alive the reform germs 
stimulated by the new-idea people. 

When ex-Senator Colby returned from an extended 
European tour in the fall of 1911, he said: "It is cer- 
tainly great to be coming home to the kind of state 
New Jersey is now. I have received the home news- 
papers every day, and I have followed with close in- 
terest the story of how New Jersey has been made 
over. I can hardly believe that so many things have 
been accomplished. Just think of the progressive laws 
which New Jersey has now!" When Mr. Colby was 
asked what he thought of Governor Wilson he replied: 
"He is a corker." 

That Woodrow Wilson fully appreciates the work 
accomplished by the new idea men is proven by one of 
his public utterances: In a public address he stated: 
"Some of the most public spirited, some of the wisest 
and most progressive men in the Republican party 
discovered by slow degrees, what it made their hearts 



48 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

very heavy to discover, that the party was being dom- 
inated by certain special interests. They then turned 
their faces away from those members of their party 
who represented that domination. They said, *We will 
no longer consent to serve some of the people when 
we ought to be serving all of the people,.' and there- 
fore, these gentlemen that, in this state, we call the 
new-idea Republicans, these gentlemen that are in some 
quarters called progressive, and in others insurgent, 
have this idea which we ought to be ashamed to call a 
new idea, that their obligations are to the people, to 
the whole country, to the great mass of men whose 
fortunes make up for ill or for good the prosperity of 
America. That is the new, the ancient, the majestic 
idea that has always beckoned men to their highest 
duty in America." 



WOODRUW WILSON 49 



CHAPTER IV. 

[This chapter as well as Chapter V appeared in La Follette's 
Magazine on December 3, 1910.] 

JERSEY JUSTICE. 

A Story of the Grand Jury Room in Which Judge 

Gummere Figures. 

By Herman B. Walker. 

On the morning of February 19, 1903, a trolley car 
crowded with boys and girls on their way to High 
School was run down by a Delaware, Lackawanna and 
Western Railroad train at Clifton avenue, Newark, N. 
J. Eight young women and one young man were in- 
stantly killed or fatally injured, and nearly twenty 
others were crippled or otherwise seriously hurt. The 
crossing at which the accident occurred had been fre- 
quently pointed out by the newspapers and the public 
officials of the city as an especially dangerous one. 
East-bound trains and north-bound cars both 
approached the crossing on heavy down grades, and 
the railroad tracks were hid from view by surrounding 
buildings until one was nearly upon them. It was a 
north-bound car that was struck by an east-bound 
train. On the morning of the accident ice and sleet 



50 



THE FORERUNNERS OF 




HERMAN B. WALKER 

"This lover of his race, this ardent hater of wrong, this 
tower of strength unto the weak, and this pillar of flame to 
the gropers for light. He believes with all his heart and soul 
in what may be called 'the American principle of government,' 
No Highland chieftain ever took a fiercer delight in the shock 
of combat than does Walker in his battle for the rights of 
the people against encroaching, long-entrenched, seldom- 
disturbed puissant special privilege. His strong, fearless hand 
has ever hurled the thunderbolt of truth full and fair in the 
face of cringing convention. One is struck which to admire 
or wonder at most — Walker's idealism, his dreams, or his 
hard, accurate, cold, judicial poise in treating any story and 
weighing uo statements and handling facts. This State has 
heard of Walker, for he has the great weapon wielded. The 
Newark Evening News, one of the greatest in the nation, and 
he is one of the men who made it great. To call Walker 
'brother' every honest newspaperman in New Jersey should be 
proud." — Congressman Robert G. Bremner, editor Passaic 
Herald. 



WOODROW WILSON 51 

made the tracks slippery, and neither the trolley 
motorman nor the engineer of tha train could do any- 
thing to prevent the accident both saw was inevitable. 
There had for years been agitation in New Jersey 
for the abolition of grade crossings, but railroad influ- 
ence in the Legislature frustrated attempts to secure 
legislation to compel the roads to abolish the danger- 
ous crossings at their own cost, and the courts had 
refused to make orders for the abolishment of such 
crossings, although they had the power to do so. At 
the time of the killing, the city officials of Newark 
were negotiating with the railroads to elevate and 
depress their tracks throughout the city. Since the 
accident practically all the crossings in the city have 
been eliminated, the city paying more than half a 
million dollars of the cost of this work. 

Prominent Men Acquitted. 

The trolley road on which the killing occurred was 
operated by the Public Service Corporation of New 
Jersey, and owned by the North Jersey Street Rail- 
way Company, a subsidiary corporation. An Essex 
county Grand Jury, sitting at the time, indicted the 
members of the executive committee of the board of 
directors of the North Jersey Company, for man- 



52 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

slaughter. They were all indicted and tried on a 
single indictment, and were all acquitted, the trial 
judge not even allowing the case to go to the jury. 
Among the men so tried and acquitted were the late 
A. J. Cassatt, then president of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad Company; John D. Crimmins, the New York 
trolley magnate and promoter; Dr. Leslie D. Ward, 
first vice-president of the Prudential Insurance Com- 
pany, and David Young, general manager of the Public 
Service Corporation. 

The Public Service Corporation was organized, and 
is largely controlled by the Prudential Insurance Com- 
pany interests. John F. Dryden, president of the Pru- 
dential, was then a Republican United States Senator 
from New Jersey. Thomas N. McCarter, president of 
the Public Service, was a former State Senator and 
Attorney General of the State. His brother succeeded 
him as Attorney General. 

Chandler W. Riker, the public prosecutor who con- 
ducted the manslaughter trial for the State, was, with 
his brother, the present clerk of the Supreme Court 
of the State, largely interested in trolley companies 
which had been taken into the Public Service merger. 

William S. Gummere, Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court of the State, before whom the manslaughter 



WOODROW WILSON 53 

case was tried, was an attorney for the Pennsylvania 
Railroad before his elevation to the judiciary. Gum- 
mere has been reappointed by Governor J. Franklin 
Fort as Chief Justice since the trial in question, in 1908. 
His name also appears as a director of the Federal 
Trust Company of Newark, of which James Smith, Jr., 
is president. Smith was once a Democratic United 
States Senator from New Jersey, is recognized as the 
boss of the Democratic party in the State, and is 
closely identified with the financial management of the 
Public Ssrvice Corporation. 

An Amazing Statement — Secrets of the Grand Jury 

Revealed. 

Alden Freeman, who made the remarkable state- 
ment which follows, is a resident of East Orange, N. J., 
who has been very prominent as an independent worker 
in reform movements in the State within recent years. 
Freeman's statement, here reprinted, was made on 
August 15, 1907, at which time Chandler W. Riker 
was being talked of as a probable Republican nominee 
for Governor. A few days later Riker announced he 
was not a candidate. Although Freeman's statement 
aroused great indignation among the people of New 
Jersey, the public officials, politicians, lawyers and 



54 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

newspapers, almost unanimously ignored th^ serious 
charges it contained, and contented themselves with 
vehement denunciations of Freeman for having told 
jury room secrets. Freeman demanded that the min- 
utes of the Grand Jury be made public, to prove his 
charges, but his demand was refused by the public 
prosecutor who had succeeded Riker in the offics. 

Freeman's statement, taken in connection with the 
facts here stated, is republished because of ths unusual 
light it throws on the methods by which the influence 
of the railroads and utility corporations reaches and 
affects juries and courts in a State where for fifty 
years or more representative government has been 
only a name, and where the constant elfort in legisla- 
tion has been to so shape the machinery of elections 
and government as to make this influence more effec- 
tive and absolute. 

Of this statement the New York Press (a Repub- 
lican newspaper) said editorially August 18, 1907: 

"A clear and startling notion of the manner in which 
justice for the wealthy is administered in the State of 
New Jersey can be gained from the disclosures made 
by Alden Freeman. * * * We should say from 
our observation that Mr. Freeman has given a typical 



WOODROW WILSON 55 

case of how government works in a State which is 
ruled, not by the people, but by a group of men who 
have gained control of the public service corporations, 
big banks and insurance companies." 

The prominent newspapers in New Jersey gave no 
attention to the grave significance and real meaning 
of Freeman's statement, but generally devoted them- 
selves to criticizing his bad manners in betraying jury 
room secrets. None of the essential facts in Mr. 
Freeman's statement has ever been denied. 



56 THE FORERUNNERS OF 



CHAPTER V. 

THE STORY OF A JURYMAN. 

By Alden Freeman. 

I was a member of the December jury of 1902 for 
Essex county, N. J. On that terrible February 19, 
1903, which Newarkers will never forget, I was still 
on duty in the grand jury. Aside from the horror of 
it, which grew as we examined the crippled victims 
on crutches in the jury room or in their cots at the 
hospital, my most vivid recollection was the stren- 
uous effort on the part of both Chandler Hiker and 
Chief Justice Gummere to prevent the bringing in of 
an indictment. The jurymen were unanimous in 
favor of separate individual indictments for man- 
slaughter against various officers of the North Jersey 
Street Railway Company and each member of the exec- 
utive committee of the corporation, and directed the 
public prosecutor to prepare such indictments. 

A $50,000 Bribe. 
For a week we kept asking for the indictments 
ordered from the prosecutor. Different members of 



WOODROW WILSON 57 

the jury in the meantime told me that they were being 
approached from the outside. One man told me he 
was offered fifty $1,000 bills by the son of one of the 
officers of the company to use his influence to quash 
the indictment. The same man told me of loans called 
by financial institutions of Newark and contracts held 
up. 

Disobedience of the Public Prosecutor. 

After this week of suspense Mr. Riker finally 
brought in an indictment of all the men in a bunch 
(something like those corporations kill their victims, 
in bunches) instead of the separate, individual indict- 
ments ordered. I protested with all the power I pos- 
sessed, and was ably supported by some of the finest 
men I have ever met, but the week's delay of the 
prosecutor had done the work, although the trick of 
the blanket indictment was fully exposed. 

Chief Justice's Advice. 

Mr. Riker was greatly excited. I recall that his 
hands shook as though with palsy, although his face 
remained immobile. He made his final effort when he 
said the Chief Justice wished us to go before him and 
let him advise us. I resented the invasion of the rights 



58 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

of the grand jury. I said that if Mr. Gummere had 
anything to say to the grand jury, let him come before 
us like any other citizen, that the functions of the 
grand jury and those of the Chief Justice were distinct 
and separate, and that he had no right to thus encroach 
upon the rights of the grand jury, which was a co- 
ordinate part of our judicial system and the only 
weapon left in the hands of an outraged people with 
which odious tyranny can be assailed. 

Chandler Riker's pleadings finally prevailed against 
me in the grand jury, just as two years later the 
pleadings of his brother, William Riker, in behalf of 
the vested interests which control the State of New 
Jersey prevailed against me in suppressing the "Trail 
of the Serpent" circulars in the Colby headquarters, 
and a committee was appointed to wait upon the Chief 
Justice. It was insisted that I should go along. 

Interview With Chief Justice. 

The Chief Justice received us, and we found Mr. 
Gummere even more agitated than the public prose- 
cutor. He also had the violent shaking of the hands. 
This I particularly noted in both men. The Chief 
Justice made a long argument against indicting. He 
said we must have reasonable ground to show criminal 



WOODROW WILSON 59 

negligence. We brought up the warning of Mayor 
Doremus in his message and various warnings of a 
similar nature by citizens, and particularly the words 
of the president of the Lackawanna Railroad, Samuel 
Sloan, who told the trolley people before they laid 
their rails across the railroad tracks that there would 
inevitably be an awful slaughter there some day, and 
that as a mere matter of business it would be much 
cheaper to carry the trolley tracks over the railroad 
on a bridge than to pay the damages in civil suits which 
would follow the death of the victims of parsimony, 

I cited the testimony of officers of the trolley com- 
pany that there were twenty-one other trolley grade 
crossings equally dangerous in Essex county, and 
finally asked the Chief Justice if, knowing of the col- 
lision of February 19 — I cannot call it an accident — 
and the butchery of the High School children, would 
he (the Chief Justice) then consider that these trolley 
officials had knowledge of the danger sufficient to call 
it criminal negligence if, while we were disputing, nine 
other school children were being done to death at any 
one of the other twenty-one unprotected, unguarded 
grade crossings over the railroad tracks? 

Mr. Gummere made no reply, and we filed out with- 
out a word. 



60 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

When we returned to the grand jury room the 
mdictments went through as prepared by Mr. Riker, 
but with a pledge upon the part of the grand jurors 
that if a miscarriage of justice resulted from the fail- 
ure of Mr. Riker to carry out the instructions of the 
grand jury then the jurymen should unite in a state- 
ment. This miscarriage of justice certainly ensued, 
but the members of the December grand jury of 1902 
have never kept their solemn pledge. 

The 'Trial" of A. J. Cassatt, John D. Crimmins, Leslie 
D. Ward and David Young. 

I followed the trial with the closest attention, and 
the public prosecutor utterly neglected to bring out 
the essential point in the testimony. The engineer 
of the trolley company, Arthur A. Reimer, of East 
Orange, under oath, told us of the grand jury that 
Clifton avenue, where the disaster occurred, was long 
considered a place of danger, and that he was directed 
to prepare plans for a derailing device at Clifton 
avenue by David Young. He testified that he drew 
up plans for such a device. It was found that his 
mechanism cost more than $1,000, and he testified that 
Mr. Young told him they would not put it in, as the 
company could not afford the expense. 



WOODROW WILSON 61 

Essential Evidence Suppressed. 

This was the essential point in determining the 
criminal negligence of the officials of the company, and 
Mr. Riker never brought out a word of the most im- 
portant testimony in the whole case. 

Case Not Permitted to Go to Jury. 

At the close of the trial, when Judge Gummere and 
his associates refused to permit the case to go to the 
jury, I myself heard Roosevelt Shanley, one of those 
on trial for manslaughter, in shaking hands with 
Chandler W. Riker, say most heartily: 'Thank you, 
Chan." 



62 THE FORERUNNERS OF 



CHAPTER VI. 

ETERNAL VIGILANCE IS THE PRICE OF 
LIBERTY. 

In the closing days of November, 1910, the press of 
the United States was excited over the visit paid by 
President McCrea, of the Pennsylvania Railroad, to 
President Taft at the White House. [By way of 
contrast the people of the United States were grati- 
fied in the closing days of November, 1913, to learn 
that President Armour, of the Beef Trust, had not 
been received by President Wilson at the White House. 
The times have changed.] 

On December 1, 1910, a slate of judiciary appoint- 
ments was issued from the White House and printed 
throughout the country with Judge Gummere's name 
at the head for Chief Justice of the United States. 

Two days later, on December 3, 1910, "The Story 
of a Juryman" appeared as the leading article in La 
Follette's Magazine. The chief editorial in the same 
issue was entitled "Don't, Mr. President !" and pro- 
tested vigorously against the appointment of Judge 



WOODROW WILSON 63 

Gummere as a man "pronouncedly friendly to the cor- 
porations"; a "judge singularly free from human 
sympathy" ; a "railroad favorite without the slightest 
indication of fitness for so important a position" ; "not 
a great lawyer, far from being a great judge," 

After the appearance of La Follette's Magazine no 
further mention of Judge Gummere's name was heard. 
He was dropped like a hot cake, and Chief Justice 
White was appointed. 

For fifteen years Judge Gummere has been known 
as the "Dollar Judge" because of his famous decision 
in 1898 that under the law a child's life is worth only 
one dollar to its parents. His term as Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court of New Jersey will expire in 
1915. 

Mr. Walker's article from La Follette's Magazine is 
reprinted here in order that ample time may be 
afforded to the people of the State to consider the 
propriety and expediency of his reappointment to the 
highest judicial office in New Jersey. 



64 THE FORERUNNERS OF 



CHAPTER VH. 

"LEST WE FORGET." 
An Essex County Grand Jury Ignored the Chief Jus- 
tice and Indicted Trolley Company. 

Remarkable to almost the degree of sensationalism 
were the proceedings in the Court of Oyer and Ter- 
miner on March 30, 1907, when the December grand 
jury handed up its final presentment, along with a 
batch of indictments, including a true bill against the 
North Jersey Street Railway Company. 

Contrary to precedent, the presentment was not 
read, and, after ordering it to be filed. Chief Justice 
Gummere, with "Gentlemen, you are discharged," left 
the bench before the inquisitors had filed out of the 
courtroom. 

The action of the grand jury in indicting the trolley 
company, after the charge delivered by the Chief Jus- 
tice on the trolley situation last Thursday, when he 
cautioned the inquisitors against being misled by pub- 
lic clamor, produced a frigidity that enveloped the 
whole proceedings of the court. The Chief Justice 



WOODROW WILSON 



65 




WILI.IAM FEL LOWES MOKGAN 

Presitlent of tlie Young; Men's Cliristran Association of New 

Yoik; Eoieman Essex County Grand Jury, 

December, 1900. to April, 19(»7 

This Grand Jury, drawn by Sheriff Pranli H. Sommer, 
was one of the most representative ever appointed in Essex 
County. The otlier members of this historic body were 
Charles H. Ingersoll, the ardent Single Taxer and maker of 
the Dollar Watch, and Louis Bamberger, from South Orange; 
Frederick \V. Kelsey, Rev. Adolph Roedcr and Dr. .John A. 
Stillwell, from Orange; Charles W. Anderson and Stephen 
Francisco, from Montclair; Eugene L. R. Cadmus, from Glen- 
ridge; Edward Jacobi, from Irvmgton: Henry C. Hines, 
Alfred A. Drew, Samuel F. Bailey, W. Stewart Hartshorn, 
Arthur W. McDouga'.l, of the Bureau of Associated Charities; 
Rabbi Solomon Foster, William Gwinnell, Samuel H. Baldwin, 
John L. Armitage, Jolin B. Foster, Henry F. Hilfers, secretary 
of the Essex Trades Council; Antonio Petrone, Dr. James C. 
Corliss and Bernard \V. Terlinde, publisher of "The Crown," 
from Newark. 



66 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

received the twenty-one jurors who were in attend- 
ance, headed by William Fellowes Morgan as foreman, 
and after the formal presentation of the indictments, 
asked if there was anything further desired by them. 
Upon being informed there was not he dismissed therr, 
with the brief remark quoted. 

It was the first time in the history of the court thai 
the presentment of ths grand jury was not read in 
open court. But the most sensational feature of the 
whole incident was the closing paragraph of the pre- 
sentment, which read: 

"The grand jury has investigated the methods of 
operation of the trolley lines in Essex county, and 
from the evidence presented, has considered it suffi- 
cient to indict the North Jersey Street Railway Com- 
pany, the operating company. 

"The indignation and protest of a long suffering 
public, which have been interpreted by the Court as 
'public clamor,' have not influenced the grand jury in 
its ccnsideration of this question." 



WOODROW WILSON 



67 



CHAPTER VIII. 
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF. 




Uzal Ward, Foreman of the Grand Jury, rebuking the 
last royal Chief Justice of New Jersey, 1774. 

[From the painting by Frank D. Millet, in the Grand 
Jury room in the Court House at Newark.] 

Defiance of Gummere Finds 1774 Parallel. 
By Frank G. Haughwout 

[From an article in The New York Press on April 1, 

1907.] 
Hudson County shares with Essex the gratification 
that the grand jury ignored the Chief Justice and 
indicted the company. That Grand Jury, it is assert- 
ed, had the spirit of the Essex County Grand Jury of 



68 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

1774, which resented an assertion by Chiet' Justice 
Frederick Smyth, the last royal Chief Justice of the 
colony of New Jersey, that "the imaginary tyranny 
3,000 miles away is less to be feared and guarded 
against than the real tyranny at our own door." 

Chief Justice Smyth had denounced the Revolution- 
ists from the bench in a charge to the Grand Jury. 
It is of hislorlcd record that Uzal Ward, foreman of 
that Grand Jury in 1774, arose, braved the Chief Jus- 
tice and told him bluntly that the tyranny 3,000 miles 
away was not imaginary but real. By a strange turn 
of events Dr. Leslie D. Ward, a director of the Public 
Service Corporation and of the Prudential Life and 
other large corporations, is a direct descendant of the 
Uzal Ward who defied the royal Chief Justice. He is 
one of the financial "Big Five" of Newark — the others 
being former United States Senators John F. Dryden 
and James Smith, Jr., Thomas N. McCarter, president 
of the Public Service Corporation, and Uzal H. Mc- 
Carter, president of the Fidelity Trust Company. 

Mayor Fagan and his friends in Jersey City have 
been working for years to shake North Jersey free 
from the grip of the Public Service. They have been 
balked at times by the decisions of Attorney-General 



WOODROW WILSON 69 

Robert H. McCarter, a brother of President McCarter 
of the trolley monopoly. In addition, corporate influ- 
ence in the Legislature has succeeded in defeating a 
"quo warranto bill" which would have enabled the 
Jersey City officials to reach the courts by going over 
the head of Attorney-General McCarter. The fighters 
for rapid transit reform felt sure if they only could 
reach the courts they would receive a fair deal, hence 
the surprise aroused by the effort of Chief Justice 
Gummere to prevent the Essex County Grand Jury 
returning its indictment of the Public Service Corpora- 
tion. Now that the indictment has been returned, it 
is asserted, it will be pushed to trial, with a large part 
of Jersey awaiting the outcome with acute interest. 
It is not believed, in view of the storm of protest, that 
Chief Justice Gummere will excite public feeling fur- 
ther by actions which might be construed as friendly 
to the Public Service Corporation. Those who are 
fighting the Public Service say, however, the action of 
the Grand Jury in defying the Chief Justice will have 
a good effect. 

It is recalled that the incident of 1774, in which a 
Grand Jury defied a royal Chief Justice who defended 
British tyranny, is to be depicted on canvas by Frank 



70 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

D. Millet for the adornment of the new Court House in 
Essex County of which Dr. Leslie D. Ward is a com- 
missioner. Suggestion is made that in years to come, 
when the people have the Public Service Corporation 
in effective control, another picture may be painted 
depicting a Grand Jury's defiance of a republican Chief 
Justice for his defence of corporate tyranny. 



WOODROW WILSON 71 



CHAPTER IX. 

Hudson County Assemblyman Accuses 
Attorney-General McCarter. 

[Report of Speech of Joseph P. Tumulty before the 
State Legislature, in The Newark Evening News, 
March 26. 1907.1 

"It is a humiliating spectacle to behold the attorney- 
general to-day representing the interests in court of 
the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and 
tomorrow the interests of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, 
especially at this crucial time when there are pending 
in this very Legislature bills, which, if passed, threaten 
seriously to affect those various interests. Not only 
do you find him representing those interests, but you 
will also find him in open court before the eyes of the 
world, defending the right of a man to public ofl^ice 
whose title to office a just and upright Judge declared 
was tainted with fraud and corruption. 

"A few short years ago the citizens of Jersey City, 
backed up by an enlightened public opinion, knocked 
at the doors of the oflfice of Robert McCarter, the 



72 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

present attorney-general, and begged, almost on bend- 
ed knee, aye, even humiliated themselves before him," 
Mr. Tumulty went on as he proceeded to tell the story 
of Jersey City's efforts to obtain from Mr. McCarter 
the necessary permission to bring a suit to test the 
legality of the charter of one of the Public Service's 
street car lines. 

"The petitions, the exhortations of our citizens were 
ignored and their requests for leave to make a legiti- 
mate attack upon this corporation was scornfully de- 
nied by the attorney-general. His arbitrary action in 
this matter our citizens never have and never will 
accept as conclusive. 

"A striking coincidence lay in the relationship of 
the attorney-general, who acted in this case, and the 
president of the company, a brother of the attorney- 
general, whose corporate existence was being attacked. 
I do not wish to attribute unworthy motives to the 
attorney-general in the consideration of this case ; I 
do not care to have the presumption gain root in your 
minds in the consideration of this case that he was 
guided in the conclusion at which he arrived by any 
extraneous considerations or that feelings of brotherly 
love actuated his action in the least, but when the open 



WOODROW WILSON 



73 




JOSEPH P. TUMULTY 

Secietiii'v to the President of tlie l nited States 



The grace and dignity, deftness and tact with which Mr. 
Tumulty, witliout tlie waste of an unnecessary word, presides 
over the antechamber of the President, is an object lesson in 
the art of self-restraint. What versatility and adaptability 
are here displayed by a man whose genuine virtue and con- 
scious rectitude carried him with clean hands through four 
consecutive terms as a pioneer progressive Democrat in the 
New Jersey Assembly, where the honest indignation of this 
quiet gentleman of few words won him the name of "the 
Demosthenes of Hudson County" on account of his fiery denun- 
ciation of vested wrongs and malefactors of great power. 



74 THE FORERUNNERS OF 

and notorious charge is made by a prominent official 
of Hudson County and spread broadcast throughout 
the length and breadth of the State of New Jersey 
that the president of the Public Service made a state- 
ment in his presence that he would see to it that his 
brother, the present attorney-general, would never 
permit the citizens of Jersey City to bring action at- 
tacking the validity of the franchises of the Public 
Service Corporation, then the subsequent refusal of 
the attorney-general to begin this suit, his relationship 
to the president of the Public Service, the statement 
of that same president of the Public Service solemnly 
made in the presence of witnesses, whose testimony 
is undisputed, are facts and circumstances which must 
be taken into consideration by you when you are asked 
to pass judgment on the merits of this bill." 

In closing Mr. Tumulty quoted the famous speech 
which Shakespeare puts in the mouth of Cardinal 
Woolsey after his dismissal by King Henry VIH: 
"Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal I serv'd 
my king, he would not in mine age have left me naked 
to mine enemies." "Ah, Mr. Attorney-General, had 
you given one-half the attention to the interests of the 



WOODROW WILSON 75 

people of New Jersey that you have given to those of 
the Public Service Corporation the people would not 
desert you now." 



76 THE FORERUNNERS OF 



CHAPTER X. 
The Mayor of East Orange. 

Editor of The Globe, Sir— In The Globe of Oct. 30 
Gerald McLiatchy calls on Hutchins Hapgood to give 
examples of good men not members of the Socialist 
party who have brought about reforms independently 
of their political beliefs and abolished graft. Immedi- 
ately I thought of "Golden Rule" Jones and his succes- 
sor, Brand Whitlock, in Toledo, Ohio, but I have per- 
sonal knowledge of an example nearer home, Julian A. 
Gregory, now serving his second term as mayor of 
East Orange over here in New Jersey. I have closely 
followed Mayor Gregory's political career since he was 
elected to the Board of Education in this city in 1902. 
Fearless and independent, he fought grafters and 
bosses year after year. He was a large factor in the 
defeat of the Republican boss. Major Lentz, when he 
ran for sheriff of Essex County, and for years, some- 
times singlehanded, he fought and exposed the Demo- 
cratic boss, ex-United States Senator James Smith, and 
thus prepared the way for his final overthrow by 
Woodrow Wilson. 



WOODROW WILSON 



77 




JULIAN A. GREGORY 
Mayor of East Orange 

"I have worked with the Mayor in the closest, most inti- 
mate and confidential relations for two years, and I know that 
I am a better man for it."— Speech in Commonwealth Hall, 
East Orange, 1912, by Borden D. Whiting, City Counsel of East 
Orange, former State Railroad Commissioner and law partner 
of Everett Colby. 



78 THE FuRERUNxNERS OF 

Gregory was elected mayor on the Damocratic ticket 
the same year that President Wilson was chosen gov- 
ernor of New Jersey. He gave such an absolutely 
non-partisan and just administration of the city's af- 
fairs that 100 members of the Republican Club of East 
Orange united in a petition to this Democrat to stand 
for a second term, and he was re-elected by an over- 
whelming majority. Graft has been eliminated under 
his searching scrutiny -of the city's business, and a 
spirit of fairness and justice rules in the city govern- 
ment. Talk with any citizen, rich or poor, and you 
will find only one opinion in this town of Mayor Greg- 
ory's sincerity of purpose, absolute integrity, keen 
sense of justice, and kindness of heart. As a work- 
ingman of Toledo once said to me of Brand Whitlock, 
this man can be re-elected mayor just as many terms 
as he is willing to continue to sacrifice himself for the 
common good of the people of the city. 

ALDEN FREEMAN. 

East Orange, N. J., October 31, 1913. [Reprinted 
from The Globe and Commercial Advertiser of New 
York, November 4, 1913.] 



woo I) R O W W I LSON 79 



.Mayor Fagan said to me that he believed this "new idea" 
movement would make an epoch in the history of tJie world, 
and that in years to come men would look back to the days oi" 
1905 and 1906, the rise of national reform in segregated 
spots, and, following its course, they would discover that what 
seemed like scattered snow-drifts had become an avalanche 
destined to sweep everything before it, not only redeeming the 
people from the greed and graft of great corporations, but 
also raising up a "peculiar people," released from the giant 
grip of boss rule, at once redeemed, regenerated, and dis- 
enthralled. — Francis Leon Chrisman in Montclair Herald, July 
19, 190G. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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